Dear stakeholders,
The solar power market is booming. 2019 was a record year for our company in terms of construction and capacity growth. We doubled our installed capacity by grid-connecting more than 600MW in Egypt, Malaysia, Ukraine and Mozambique. We had 12 projects under construction across four continents, engaging close to 8,000 workers. No matter what direction we develop and grow in as a company, sustainability remains at the core of our business.
We gain considerable experience from conducting business across emerging and often complex markets. We meet challenging situations and we are continually accumulating valuable knowledge. It is highly rewarding to see how our organisation works with sustainability as an integrated part of its operating model. Enterprise leadership plays a vital role in the organisation. Our people not only focus on their own business unit or goals, but also work together across functions to deliver sustainable projects. We all work with sustainability in one way or another.
Last year we presented our updated sustainability framework based on input from key stakeholders and internal strategic priorities. This year we report on our progress and performance. The growing emphasis that investors and other stakeholders are giving to ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) matters is a clear sign that our industry is heading in the right direction. We have worked systematically over many years to improve our ESG reporting, and in early 2020 our company was rated an industry leader in ESG risk management. Sustainalytics, a leading global ESG risk-rating agency, ranked us as the company with lowest ESG risk out of 450 companies in the global utilities industry. This is of the utmost importance to us. Being transparent and open is one of our key responsibilities to our stakeholders.
As a renewable energy company, we are deeply concerned about CO2 emissions. Our plants in operation saved close to 900,000 tons of CO2 emissions in 2019. This figure is expected to reach about 1.4 million by the end of 2020. To put this into perspective, one million tons of CO2 emissions equals the annual emissions of more than 200,000 passenger vehicles. The positive climate impact of our business is significant, but to take full responsibility, we also need to identify and manage our own carbon footprint.
In 2019 we continued our efforts to report on emissions from our business activities. We started reporting to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which was a valuable learning experience leading to stronger focus on climate-related risk and opportunities. In 2020, we will continue this journey by expanding our reporting to include more elements of our value chain. We also plan to develop emission reduction targets and look for ways to reduce our emissions.
As a member of the UN Global Compact, we continue to support the governing principles on anti-corruption, human rights, environment and labour conditions. Human rights remained a key priority in 2019. We maintained a strong focus on potential impact areas such as land acquisition, local communities, and labour and working conditions. Protecting and respecting human rights is fundamental to our license to operate. In 2019, we continued our work with human rights and developed a new corporate policy with clear and unified guidelines across our business and geographies.
With more than 2.5 million solar panels installed in 2019, one of our most important responsibilities is to safeguard our people. Our construction teams around the world delivered about 11.7 million working hours without any serious injuries. In Egypt, for example, we completed six projects with eight million working hours and only one lost-time injury. That is a solid achievement from a safety perspective. We continually work to raise awareness of health and safety matters.
Small-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) systems represent a vital solution for responding to serious challenges faced by many of the local communities located close to our solar plants. Households often do not have any access to electricity or rely on polluting energy sources such as diesel generators. We can make a significant impact here. To date, we have several community PV projects in operation across Rwanda, Honduras and Jordan. In Rwanda, for example, a mini solar PV system provides much needed electricity to a local school and health clinic in the community next door to our solar plant. We are truly excited to increase our efforts to light up more local communities around the world.
With this report we present our sustainability targets for 2020. We are continuing our close dialogue with partners, shareholders, lenders, employees and other stakeholders to ensure alignment with their key concerns and interests regarding sustainability. We are thankful for all our partners, business relations and networks that collaborate with us to ensure high ethical standards in everything we do.
Our 2019 global workplace survey indicated that 93% of our employees feel proud to tell others that they work for ScatecSolar. I am also proud. I am proud of the 335 tremendously dedicated people who consistently deliver on our ambitious growth targets. Our vision of “improving our future” is a strong commitment that requires tremendous efforts from each one of us. And knowing that every day our work makes this planet a little bit greener and more sustainable leaves me confident that we are indeed heading in the right direction.
Raymond Carlsen
CEO